Domenico Scarlatti – José de Nebra.

Stabat Mater-Salve Regina  | LAU027

Two composers, two works on the Virgin Mary and two ways of expressing grief and supplication through music. This album brings together Domenico Scarlatti and José de Nebra around two great texts of Marian devotion. Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater, one of the pinnacles of the sacred vocal repertoire, dazzles with its imposing ten-part writing and its contrapuntal refinement. Nebra’s work — composed within the circle of the Spanish Royal Chapel for a small ensemble — possesses great expressive power and a marked theatrical quality. In his Salve Regina for solo soprano, strings and continuo, Scarlatti explores a more intimate and virtuosic realm in what is considered his final work. Nebra, by contrast, based on the same text, opts for an eloquent restraint. La Grande Chapelle thus presents an evocative dialogue between two key figures in 18th-century music on the Iberian Peninsula, whose careers converged around Queen Barbara of Braganza.

The production of this album has been sponsored by the Centre for European-Hispanic Studies (CEEH) and in collaboration with the European Centre for Music (CEM).